FIRST SECTION
Application no. 68149/11
Y
against Croatia
lodged on 14 September 2011
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Mr Y, is a Croatian national, born in 1979 and currently placed to a psychiatric institution.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 5 September 2008 four police officers arrested the applicant in a house in G. During the arrest they hit the applicant twice with a crowbar and twisted his arm. The officers also searched the house with a warrant. They took his identity documents and have never returned them.
The applicant has been placed in a psychiatric institution since 8 September 2008. He is diagnosed with psychosis.
On an unspecified date proceedings for divesting him of legal capacity were instituted and on 6 November 2009 his father, with whom the applicant has had difficult relationship all his life, was appointed as his special guardian. The applicant lodged an appeal alleging that his father had left him when he was three months old and had never cared for him. Later on he had kept him locked in a dark room, hit him with a stick and often threatened to beat and kill him. He asked that his mother be appointed as his guardian. He did not receive a reply.
The applicant repeatedly asked the courts to provide him with the documents from the case-file, such as psychiatric reports. He was told that his guardian had access to the documents.
The Head Nurse of the institution he is placed into confiscated his laptop and banned him from writing any complaints about his treatment in the said institution. His laptop was then ruined.
On 5 November 2011 he was attacked with a rod by a hospital guard.
COMPLAINTS
The applicant complains under Article 3 of the Convention about the violence against him on 5 September 2008 and 5 November 2011.
He also complains about Article 5 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention that his psychiatric internment has been unlawful and that he had no adequate procedure to challenge it.
He further complains under Article 6 of the Convention that the proceedings for divesting him of his legal capacity have not been fair.
He complains under Article 8 of the Convention that his psychiatric interment and the proceedings for divesting him of his legal capacity violated his right to respect for his private life. He also complains that a nurse had taken away his laptop in order to prevent him form complaining about his treatment and his internment. The laptop was then ruined. The police intimidated the person who is receiving mail on his behalf.
The applicant also invokes Articles 4, 10, 11, 13 and 14 of the Convention, Articles 2 and 3 of Protocol No. 4 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12.
QUESTIONs
1. Has the applicant been subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the police during the intervention on 5 September 2008 or in the psychiatric institution he is confined to, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention? Having regard to the procedural protection from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, was the investigation in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?
2. Has the applicant been at any time deprived of his liberty in breach of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention (see Stanev v. Bulgaria [GC], no. 36760/06, ECHR 2012)?
3. Did the applicant have at his disposal an effective procedure by which he could challenge the lawfulness of his detention, as required by Article 5 § 4 of the Convention? Was the procedure by which the applicant sought to challenge the lawfulness of his detention in conformity with Article 5 § 4 of the Convention?
4. Did the applicant have a fair hearing in the determination of his civil rights and obligations in the proceedings for divesting his of his legal capacity?
5. Has there been an interference with the applicant’s right to respect for his private life or correspondence, within the meaning of Article 8 § 1 of the Convention? If so, was that interference in accordance with the law and necessary in terms of Article 8 § 2?
The Government are requested to submit all relevant case-files concerning the applicant’s complaints, together with all his complaints to the national authorities and the answers provided.
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy